Churches Throughout Nation Mark “Day of Compassion” for Jews in Europe

Churches throughout the nation today offered special prayers for the persecuted Jews of Europe as part of the observance of a "Day of Compassion" for these Jews proclaimed by the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America.

Dr. Henry St. George Tucker, Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church and president of the Council, in a statement in connection with the observances, said it was the first time Christian churches had set aside a specific day for a "united expression of their sympathy with a suffering and persecuted Jewry." "What is happening to the Jews on the Continent of Europe is so horrible that we are in danger of assuming that it is exaggerated," he said, and cited a recent survey by the council of evidence that he said indicated that under the Nazis a policy of deliberate extermination of Jews was being carried out. "The survey shows that the actual facts are probably more, rather than less, terrible than the reports," he continued. "The Christian people of America vigorously protest against this brutal and cruel persecution. But protest is not enough."

The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.